Combat music in Age of Conan
DateTime:9/27/2009 11:20:23 AM
Combat was going to be a very big part of the game, so to avoid the problem of repetitiveness, there would have to be a lot of combat music. We decided to have unique combat music for each of the main countries and to have as many different cues as possible for both normal and boss combat in all areas. The approach to the combat music differs in comparison to the ambient cues and music for cut-scenes in the respect that much of it is not in fact linear; a lot of the music is actually composed as sections that can be shuffled around and put together in many different ways and still make musical sense. In this way it’s possible to achieve further variation in a very simple manner just by putting together the sections in different ways. There are a few limitations as to which cues can be put together, but basically a section will fit together seamlessly with any other section of any combat music cue of any culture. There are several different intensity levels composed in different keys.  Normal combat is in G-minor and with each rise in intensity level, the music transposes up a minor third, meaning that the most intense boss-combat sections are in E-minor and will modulate nicely into normal combat in G-minor to close the circle. Some of the bigger boss-combat cues are composed as longer linear piece, but even these will connect seamlessly to any other section.